An Afterthought

An Afterthought
by Damon Smith

If beauty is fleeting
why are you still here?
lurking around these parts
which you once held so dear

Are you confused?
unable to differentiate want from need
Is it just a rouse?
and that's why you're tiptoeing around ... that which used to be
is now an afterthought
trapped within the failed promise of our yesterdays.
Tomorrows' sorrow now knows a depth so shallow
In it, minnows couldn't swim
No, it didn't happen on a whim

But rather over time
I realized I did overtime for naught
Lived for your works, but didn't get time and a half
Instead, I got caught
Up in some shit a goat wouldn't eat
Yet, time and again, you goaded me into the belief
of what you thought should be.

Now just a thought in the afterlife
A dream dried up and deferred
Absurd, to you it may seem
I concur, you're still caught up in the dream
all the while, that fancy had already passed.
After the thought of that which will truly lasts.

Now in my old age, I laugh when I see you
in place of all the tears I never cried
I will no longer attempt to deceive you
You see, from myself I can no longer hide.
Pride had to fall by the wayside, and subside.

And for once, the mirror reflected a truth,
One foreign even to my eyes,
Something I wished I'd known in my youth:
Beauty is a thought chased after by a lie.
And, at last, you are no longer my shadow.